Note 398 — MAGNA CARTA.
Reading edition
Blackstone, Great Charter, lxxviii. considers this “an indulgence to guardians, by only directing them to deliver up the land ... in as good condition as they found it, not in as good as it would bear.” Sometimes, the heir after coming of age, could not recover his lands at all. The Statute of Marlborough (c. 16) gave such a ward a right to a mort d’ancestor (cf. infra, p. 325) against a mesne lord, but apparently not against the Crown. The Statute of Westminster I. (c. 48) narrates that heirs were often carried off bodily to prevent them raising actions against their guardians.